Most underrated (non-Disney) film?

[2099net]

I'm tempted to say the Brady Bunch movies – but I'll step down from that soapbox.

There are lots of underrated films, and as we all know box office takings don't equate to the quality of the actual film. So what film do you feel is the most underrated?

My choice is "True Stories" – the 1986 Talking Heads/David Byrne film. As I have mentioned in the "Top 10 Favourite Songs" thread, I'm a big fan of Talking Heads and David Byrne's subsequent more varied solo career. In many ways this film shows his aspirations to move away from the punk-ish rock of Talking Heads and onto the world music inspired compositions which dominate most of his solo releases.

As I type this, I'm listening to the film's stunning soundtrack and it features a number of classic Talking Heads tracks "Wild Wild Life", "Love for Sale" and "Radio Head". In addition there's a surprising amount of more varied songs, from the fairytale like "Dream Operator", to the country inspired "People Like Us", to the closing ballad "City of Dreams". All written by David Byrne, who also wrote and directed the film.

So what about the film? Well, in truth nothing much really happens. David Byrne acts as a narrator/tourist in a small Texas township celebrating the state's sesquicentennial by holding a talent show. What follows is a bizarre "mockumentary" where the town's eccentric citizens are played by actors. John Goodman plays a lonely single man. There's also a pathological liar, a happily married couple who never speak to each other, a voodoo priest and a woman who never leaves her house.

It's humorous, but is never "funny". In the film the cast sing some of the songs exclusively – John Goodman puts in a stunning rendition of "People Like Us" while Annie McEnroe's "Dream Operator" is just perfect. (One of my greatest desires is to get a copy of the cast album which has long been placed out of print).

In the end all we do is visit the town, meet the likeable inhabitants and leave. And it's simply because the inhabitants are so likeable that I always feel sad when the closing credits roll. The township really is a "City of Dreams", and this song normally beings a tear to my eye as I want to stay there longer.

It's was one of Warners earliest DVD releases and suffers badly because of this. There is only a generic Warner Brothers menu and the image is cropped to 4:3. If ever a DVD was crying out for a Special Edition re-release this is it.

We need music videos. A commentary from David Byrne so he can explain his unique vision. Early music demos.

[Matty-Mouse]

Romy and Michelle's High School Reunion!

[jabroni76]

Well, this is a huge matter of opinion, and your peers. I for one love To Kill a Mockingbird, and almost every single person I've talked to has said that they've heard of the book, but would never watch/read it since it's a girly book. BULL****. So I think that movie is underrated.

[Luke]

Well, To Kill a Mockingbird is one of my favorite movies of all-time, but I don't think it can be considered underrated. Well, a little bit, I guess. I'd put it ahead of something like Lawrence of Arabia or 2001 as the best of its decade, and most wouldn't...so in that sense it's underrated.

I'd say that Ghostbusters II is one of the most underrated sequels of all-time. It's a load of fun, every bit as much as the original, and yet so many people rag on it. It's nearly impossible for me to imagine how you could love the first...and not even like the second. They're both hilarious, they're both gripping...the second one follows the formula of the first but with its own twist of putting the Ghostbusters as fallen stars who have to reclaim their glory. But the sequel is maybe even funnier than the original - it's a great movie on its own right. And it's seriously underrated. And I love it.

"True Stories" sounds interesting - I'll have to check it out at some time.

And I liked "Romy and Michelle's" from what I saw. Kind of like a "Grosse Pointe Blank" without the whole hitman subplot - an ode to '80s music.

[Prince Phillip]

Gattaca with Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman. This is such a great movie with such a great, original, heart felt story, I highly reckamend that any of you who have not seen it as os yet do so...

Also, I don't know if it's considered underated, but I love Ever After with Drew Barrymore as well, but if I had to chose from the 2 I'd say Gattaca.

[Luke]

I love Gattaca! Was one of the few who saw it in theaters and I've owned the DVD for years.

[2099net]

I love Gattaca! Was one of the few who saw it in theaters and I've owned the DVD for years.

Not the Superbit version then?!?

[poco]

What's the difference between superbit and other DVD versions? I've seen some in stores but don't know the difference

We watched parts of Gattica in seminary ethics/theology classes. Haven't seen the entire movie though

[Marianne81]

Also, I don't know if it's considered underated, but I love Ever After with Drew Barrymore as well

I love this movie and is actually one of the few DVD's I own. I think it is pretty underrated.

I also think That Thing You Do is a geat movie and highly underrated. It is funny, has great music, and I always feel good after I've watched it.

[Prince Phillip]

You know what great movie I think is HIGHLY underated? LOTR

[Prince Phillip]

What's the difference between superbit and other DVD versions? I've seen some in stores but don't know the difference

We watched parts of Gattica in seminary ethics/theology classes. Haven't seen the entire movie though

Poco, the difference is that superbit, is soppose to have an amazing picture and sound quality, that is suppose to blow the regular versions away. This probably helps too, if you have an HD-TV and 1-2 thousand dollar Suround System .

You have got to see Gattaca!

Oh and I love the Final Destination movies, which surprisingly not alot of people have heard about. Atleast not a lot of the people I've talked to... And I really like Hook.

[indianajdp]

A couple of sub flicks I thoroughly enjoyed are Hunt for Red October and U-571. But if I had to choose one...well, I'm gonna choose three

Bottle Rocket - Owen and Luke Wilson
The Green Mile - Tom Hanks and Michael Clark Duncan
Unbreakable - Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson

[Maerj]

Superbit DVDs have only the movie on the one disc and they max out the bitrate on it, insuring a very clear picture. To hardcore videophiles with super home theater systems and professionals, there may be a big difference, but to your average joe blow movie watcher it won't be that noticeable.

[Luke]

Like Bottle Rocket (waiting to get this from CH) and Green Mile too. Liked the first Final Destination a lot - the sequel not so much. I found Red October to be very boring, unfortunately.

Why would I pay more for the Superbit version when the standard version has excellent picture and sound + deleted scenes, a featurette, trailers and notes? I despise the idea of Superbit, and it's particularly dumb that they won't include a commentary track on them (because those take up soooo much space) and that they give "Superbit" treatment to movies that already look and sound good.

A worthwhile Superbit would be Sony re-doing something they screwed up - like Matilda or Look Who's Talking Now - in WIDESCREEN.

[Sulley]

I still haven't seen FD2 yet, but I loved the first. I thought Red October was good on the whole, but it seemed very drawn out and slow. I loved Patriot Games though. I also own all six Thumb movies. Don't know if you've heard of them, but they're absolutely hilarious spoofs of blockbusters with computer generated faces on real thumbs in tiny costumes in place of actors. Films include:
Thumb Wars
The Blair Thumb (Haven't seen because I'm waiting until I rent "Witch Project"
Thumbtanic
Bat Thumb ( My Fav besides Thumb Wars)
Frankenthumb (parody of original 1931)
The Godthumb

I hope Steve Oedekerk continues to make these, as they have hilarious one-liners and sight gags in the featurettes (each about 30 min) and in the extras like interviews with the "cast members." Great fun. There's rumour of an upcoming short, "Thumbatrix"

[Maerj]

Sulley,

My suggestion would be to skip renting Witch Project. Terrible film, boring nothing happens. Critics liked it because it didn't show anything and young people liked it because they never saw anything like it before and are used to special effects. I grew up watching crappy cheesey horror movies with bad or no special effects so this was nothing new to me, just a return to that sort of thing. But, its up to you, rent what you want but I am telling you now that Blair Thumb is probably much better.

[Luke]

On the other hand, I LOVED "Blair Witch Project." Shows that the most frightening thing can simply be the unknown. I found it to be scarier than the majority of horror films I've seen. I thought it was a really clever film that truly delivers scares with very little.

[Sulley]

My cousin is in town right now, and he is a HUGE fan of The Blair Witch Project. Last night we watched a couple of my Thumb movies starting with Thumb Wars (He is a huge Star Wars fan, as am I) and we also watched The Blair Thumb. It probably would have helped the humor if I had watched the original movie first, but now I plan to rent it out of curiosity.

[Bella Notte]

My suggestion would be to skip renting Witch Project. Terrible film, boring nothing happens.

I agree about The Blair Witch Project. I thought that it was dull and not scary at all.

[Loomis]

Well, I think you've all missed the obvious!

Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo

But in all seriousness (yeah, that's right, I was joking...):

I agree with Luke on Ghostbusters II - it doesn't quite live up to the original for me, but definitely a very funny movie in its own right.

Ummm....just off the top of my head:
A Better Place - directorial debut of View Askew historian Vincent Pereira
Donnie Darko - didn't get a huge release here, but saw it at the cinema, loved it, and I bought the DVD yesterday.
Smoke - what a cast. Don't hear much about it these days, but it was a nice little film written by one of my favourite writers, Paul Auster.
Go - written off as Pulp Fiction Jr., this was so much more. Very fun stuff.
Waiting For Guffman and Best in Show - I don't know how big these are in the US or anywhere else, but they only have a small cult following here. Better than any mainstream comedy you are going to see.

There are stacks more, but these are the only ones I can think of right now of recent years...